Question:
I am a relatively recent convert, and I
believe the Bible. But when someone
questions me regarding contradictions in the Bible, I’m not sure how to answer. How do you answer someone who questions the
Bible’s credibility?
Answer:
While I feel that the Christian faith is
a rational faith, I understand there are portions that are beyond complete
human comprehension. It's not that they
defy logic, but more that the answers are not comprehensible to one with a
finite intelligence (such as you and me).
I don't think this hurts Christianity one bit! If mankind could completely
comprehend divine truth, then it wouldn't be divine truth, would it? In other words, the fact that there are some
incomprehensible parts in the Bible lends credence to the fact that the Bible
is divine in origin.
Now, if you studied philosophy like I
did, you might come back with the fact that there are some human philosophical
viewpoints that are incomprehensible (like Nietzsche and Heidegger, I could
never understand those crazy German philosophers). In other words, incomprehensibility doesn't
necessitate divine origin. That's
true. That's why I said it only lends
credence (or believability) to the divine origin of the Bible.
The Bible gets its credence from several
sources:
1.
Manuscript evidence:
The New Testament is the most well supported ancient document from that
period of history. There are over 5,000
manuscripts and fragments in the Greek language alone; not to mention other
languages such as Latin, Arabic, etc. which bring the total number of
manuscripts to over 24,000. No other
document of antiquity approaches this overwhelming attestation of
reliability. The works of Homer (which
no reputable scholar questions authentic) has only 600 or so manuscripts. Not only that, the earliest
NT manuscripts are dated reliably to within 100-150 years of the
originals. Compare that to the earliest
known copy of Homer's Iliad which is around 1,000 years of the original
writing. What this means is that the
earlier a copy is dated to the original, the less the likelihood of fraud and
error. All told, these ancient documents
compare to modern day translations of the NT very favorably. Our modern day Bibles are approximately 99.9%
accurate to the ancient manuscripts. In
other words, the Bible you hold in your hands is essentially the unadulterated
word of God (the other 0.1% comes in the form of spelling and punctuation
variations which do not alter the meaning of any Biblical doctrine. Besides most good modern translations have
copious footnotes).
2.
Archeological evidence:
Briefly, there has been no archeological discovery that has refuted the
historical chronology of the Bible.
None! There are still unanswered
questions, but so far to date, the Bible is batting 1.000!
3.
Predictive prophecy:
No other book has the predictive accuracy of the Bible. The book of Daniel, for example, contains
succinct details of the emerging world empires of
4.
Statistical evidence:
Relating to the previous point, what are the mathematical odds that all
of the prophecies concerning the life of Jesus could have been fulfilled by one
man? The odds are astronomical
(literally bordering on the impossible, you have a much better chance to win
three consecutive lotteries) that one man could fulfill every one of those
prophecies completely!
5.
Not to mention what Jesus Himself thought of the Bible (i.e.,
that it is God's infallible, inerrant, authoritative word).
I say all
this to point out the Bible's overwhelming reliability. Does this prove that it is the word of
God? No.
But it does present a beyond reasonable doubt argument to its origin and
authenticity. The goal of apologetics
isn't to convert people (though it does) to Christianity. The goal of apologetics is to present a
reasonable, rational defense of Christianity so that the skeptic is
silenced. Furthermore, based on the
Bible's reliability, if I personally come across something that doesn't make
perfect sense to me, I chalk that up to my own limitations. It might be an issue for further study, or it
might be an issue that I'll never resolve in my lifetime. But I don't for a moment think that because I
don't understand something in the Bible it means the Bible is unreliable or
illogical. Incomprehensibility doesn't
imply contradictory.